The Oleens: One Year Later

To say the last year has been a crazy ride would be putting it mildly. During our first year of marriage, much, much more than just my last name has changed.

The happy couple September 16, 2011.

Let’s just be real here for a second.

This marriage thing ain’t for sissy’s.

We’ve already made it through family losses, more thoughtless disagreements than I thought humanly possible between two people and the loss of my girl.

On the flip side, we’ve made memories that make me giggle and shake my head. Here’s a quick run down of our first year of marriage. Hang on, it’s a heck of a ride.

We adopted.

Yep. You heard right-might not be what you’re thinking though. We adopted in the four legged variety. Blogosphere, meet Stella. We adopted this wiggly and licking package of love from mabbr.org. I can’t tell you how happy she makes us! And I really mean us. Some of our biggest controversy within the Oleen household is which side of the bed Stella will sleep on, Brandon’s side or mine.

I’m a cattle watering machine.

As you all know, I’m not exactly the cowboy that Brandon wants me to be- but I’m getting closer! This year the drought and the Kansas heat created a lot of thirsty cows and horses. It didn’t take too long and Brandon had me hooking up the skid loader and water like an Oleen watering machine. #YesIJustSaidThat.

We had a baby!
Again, not exactly what the average person would think, but it is a baby! Brandon bred his favorite mare in 2011. She had the cutest little filly! Meet Jackies Playin With a Gun- Jackie for short!

Weddings, weddings and more weddings!

There have been so many of our friends {even my Dad} tie the knot! It’s made for great travel and lots of nights on the town. Thank you all for making us a part of your journey together!

Things change.

We’ve had great friends move away and other friends move closer. We miss you Garrett, Tara, Finnel, Lenhart, Nick and many others!  Aaanndddd without further ado, welcome to the mid west Kelly, Fwed and Rrrrory Rrrooo Rrrivard!

Whew! Just writing all that made me a little tired and I didn’t even include trips home to see family, road trips for work and all the horses that made their way to our place for a few more miles.

It’s been a year of learning to say the least. Learning to let go, learning to live together, learning to live as a team and most important learning to respect and love each other no matter what. Here’s to year number two!

I’m Just Not Good at Saying Goodbye

Update: Lexus went to where all good dogs go Thursday, April 26, 2012. I hope she knows how much I love her. I hope I see her again.

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This post is really going to be a downer. Forgive me now. I need to write this.

I need to ask this question.

I need your input.

You see, I am in the process of loosing a precious friend. One that I have had in my life for more than 16 years.

She is the apitomy of kindness, patience, loyalty and love. She is my pup, Lexus.

Meet Lexus.

Well, she’s not really a pup now. And that’s the problem.

About a year and a half ago Lex started having seizures. I had planned to put her down but some how, she made a huge tournaround and we have been able to keep her with us for a little longer.

Until lately.

Lately the walks have been shorter, the standing wobblier, the tailwagging less frequent and she’s started eating less- lots less.

It’s starting to be that time. I can feel it.

So this is where I need your help.

About a month ago I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone and we were talking about Lexus. I mentioned I look forward seeing her in Heaven.

There was an akward pause.

And then, with the utmost kindness she talked with me about what she thought Heaven would be like.

She didn’t think there would be dogs in Heaven. Or horses. Or cows.

Really?

I just couldn’t believe it. What?! I mean, what kind of Heaven wouldn’t have dogs, horses or cows? That’s about ALL my version of Heaven would include.

And you think I’m being facetious.

So to back track a bit, I should tell you about my friend on the phone. She is not just any friend. I love her. She is a best friend- so don’t be trashing her in the comments!

That said, she does know a lot about the Bible and spends much more time studying God’s word than I do. Lots more.

So what do I need your help with?

In the next week I think we’ll be letting Lexus move on to what I picture to be a big back yard in the sky. I’m crying my eyes out typing that. I’m just not good at saying goodbye, but I think it’s time.

Do you think I will be able to see my Lexus again?

My Marlboro Man

Note: I wrote this during my flight home earlier today. For the record, Brandon had most of Nacho’s accident cleaned up by the time I arrived to the house this evening.

I had to stop what I’m doing. I just had to. I have to tell you something.

I’m reading The Pioneer Woman’s book Black Heals to Tractor Wheels.

It’s amazing.

As weird as it might sound, I’ve laughed {out loud} on the plane home from Vegas about 20 times. I’m only on page 70.

Warning: If you have not read the book, do not read this blog post. Quickly go back to Facebook, Pinterest or tune into your favorite TV show. I’m telling you now. I don’t want to ruin the best book ever for you.

So what did I have to tell you?

A story.

A piece of Brandon’s story.

I couldn’t help but think of Brandon while reading Ree’s book. As I read about the comfort she felt in Marboro Man’s company, I began to wonder.

Could it really be? I wonder if it is?

Yep.

It must be a cowboy thing.

Not just any cowboy thing. I’m not talking bronco busting, bull riding, and extreme sports type of cowboy. And I’m definitely not talking about beer drinking, bar going people who wear their jeans too tight and belt buckles too big.

I’m talking generations deep of everyday care and stewardship, patience, calmness, confidence and persistence all wrapped up in one man- a cowboy.

Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man...yeah well...I got one of those too.

Believe it or not, they still make those kinds of guys.

I mean, it makes since. Day in and day out these men work to care for things. Yes, I just said things. Stick with me here.

Here’s what I got on Brandon:

• He’s rarely worked a day under 11 hours since I have met him.
• He’s the first to worry when cattle are sick and the first to make an extra trip to check sick pens.
• He’s up at 3 a.m. so young cattle don’t have to go through the chute during the heat of the day in the summer and he’s the one checking water tanks and scooping snow in the dead of winter.
• He burns pastures until 3 or 4 in the morning to renew pasture growth, care for the grasslands and continue the legacy his ancestors began 4 generations ago, so he can feed cattle on schedule during the day.
• He’ll be the first to take an extra minute or two to stop and watch new heifers or calves in the pen, just to make sure they’re looking okay.
• He’s always the first to point out, and check on, a newborn baby calf in the pasture.
• It doesn’t matter to him if it’s 2 minutes or 2 hours, if that horse, cow, heifer, bull {or I} need a few more minutes to calm down, he’ll find the time.
• He’s never is in a hurry, and always has a few thousand things going on.

All I can come up with is it must be bred in them, those cowboys I speak of.

Have you ever heard of the cowboy gene? Maybe we need to invest in some good old fashioned research to identify what could be a cowboy genetic marker?

We need to let others know, these men really do exist.

A man strong enough to wrestle the elements, tractors, and bales of hay- not to mention wildly temperamental, brunette women miles away from family and close friends. Yet gentle enough to deal with a newly born calf needing a warm bed of straw.

On that note, Brandon fed the dogs bacon for dinner last night. He just loves spoiling our little pups when I’m gone. Nacho, our red heeler, messed on the carpet sometime last night. He probably got an upset stomach from the bacon. When I get home from Vegas there’ll be a discolored spot on the carpet and I’ll need to get the stain out. Isn’t that a good jolt back to reality?

DIY Gifts on the Go

We used a lot of quart sized Ball, or canning, jars for wedding decoration and I have vowed to use as many as possible for Christmas presents.

I went to Pinterest and was pretty happy with the ideas I found.

I knew you guys wouldn’t lead me astray.

I made three different gifts. They were all simple to assemble and the ingredients were found at my local grocery store. Honestly, I was surprised which one I liked the most.

Note: I did make a few extra of each of these, just in case the “unexpected gift giver” popped up. I won’t be caught without a gift and nobody feels left out. Win-win, right?

I thought these cookies in a jar at Make It Do were too cute not to make. I love the idea of fresh baked cookies for Santa. Back in the day, I think Dad would have liked fresh baked cookies too. The recipe was borrowed from Bakerella’s Cowboy Cookie recipe.

Thanks for letting me borrow this picture Make it Do.

The next was The Crafty Nest’s bath salts. I did a little twist on her lavender and substitued peppermint. It made the kitchen smell amazing. Peppermint has such a revitalizing and invigorating aroma. I thought it would be perfect for a winter or spring bath for my Florida family.

Picture from The Crafty Nest.

Of the three, Under the Table and Dreaming’s lemon sugar hand scrub totally won me over. I love it because my hands are a wreck right now and I’m not one to spend oodles of money on hand scrub.

Picture courtesy of Stephanie Lynn.

It’s the perfect mixture of exfoliant and softening for my hands. The smell is a bit too “olive oily” for my liking but I added a little bit of a perfume. Just for the sake of experimenting, I might even make my next batch with almond oil.

DIY gifts are hot right now and I’ve got a lot of jars to use. Do you have a favorite “_____ in a jar” gift? If so, would you mind sharing it with me? A link would be great.

Merry Christmas!

Notes from the Newlyweds

I’m going to start by saying, I love BEO. He is perfect.

Except.

He really doesn’t fully grasp the idea of loading the dish washer.

But it’s ok.

I love him.

And that’s what matters.

After we were married, I started leaving little notes on the kitchen faucet reminding him to load the dishwasher.

They had lots of hearts, smiley faces and happy exclamation points. I didn’t want to come off rude.

I received this via text from BEO. I thought you might get a laugh out of it.

Strawberry & Blueberry Crisp

Last weekend Mom visited to help with wedding stuff. We found the perfect dress and set our date. September 17, 2011 can’t get here soon enough!

To celebrate, we brought together a few friends and cooked a big Saturday dinner. The spread was impressive to say the least. We had flat iron steaks, chicken breasts and asparagus on the grill; a tomato and cheese salad topped with smoked filet mignon slices; a salad packed full of veggies from our neighbors garden; and a creamy macaroni dish.

Dessert was my responsibility.

Strawberry and Blueberry Crisp

I decided to make one of my favorite recipes. It’s fairly quick and easy and always a big hit. I originally found the recipe in a Fine Cooking magazine a few years ago. I’ve made changes to it over time.

After posting the picture above to Facebook, a few friends asked for the recipe. So here goes it- my first blog post about cooking.

Ingredients

4 Tbs. unsalted butter (room temp works best)

2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup of light brown sugar (don’t be scared of too much- this makes it good)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 lb. room temperature blueberries (scruba-dub-dub)

1 lb. stawberries (washed and sliced into edible pieces)

1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Cooking directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Give your 9 inch baking pan a good once-over with butter or Pam.

In a small bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. of salt. Take your butter and cut it up into little chunks. Work the butter into the flour mixture. Work until the mixture clumps together. If for some reason it’s not clumping, add a little more butter.

If your butter is cold, your fingers will probably start hurting a little.

Combine the strawberries and blueberries in a big bowl.

In another small bowl, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and 1/8 tsp. of salt. Make sure this is mixed well. Toss the mixture with the fruit.

Spread the fruit mixture in the baking pan. Press the streusel (the first flour mixture) into small clumps in your hand. Spread those clumps over the fruit mixture.

Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the streusel topping is browned, 40-50 minutes. Cool. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

*Optional- run an extra 3 miles tonight.

I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate National Ice Cream Month.

Wordless Wednesday: Kansas Storms

I snapped these pictures before heading home today.  We’ve all seen what storms like these can do.

It’s hard to put into words. The wind. The billowing clouds. The hail. The tornados.

If you aren’t familiar with tornados, check out this video.

This storm in particular passed right by without a drop of rain.

It doesn’t matter if it rains or not, storms like this always give me an eerie feeling.

We’ve All Got A Story

I ran across this video from Jan Hoadley of Slow Money Farm today while trying to learn more about Agchat Foundation’s Agvocacy 2.0 Conference.  Since attendance is only granted through an application process, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. With any luck, I’ll join Jan for #ACFC11 August 22-23 in Nashville, TN.

I’ve followed Jan on Twitter for some time now. She has all kinds of farm animals and shares a unique love for rabbits with another Twitter friend of mine, Kelly Rivard.

I love how she insists “we’ve all got a story” in this video.

Jan’s right you know, our stories provide a foundation for our lives and can even define our lives.

One day I’ll tell you the story of a city girl [lil ol' me] who met a dairy farmer. The experience changed my life forever and began my “story” in agriculture.

I’d like to think our stories in life are more alike than they are different, but I guess the jury’s still out on that one. Maybe the themes of our lives are more alike than the actual stories themselves?

Just curious, do you have a blog? If so, leave me a link in the comments below.  I’d love to learn more about your life and your story.